Sunday, March 13, 2011
Vik ---- driving the volcanic south coast
After some last minute decisions and a late departure from Reykjavik, we set off for the south coast in our spacious toyota Yaris outfitted with "nailed" tires (aka studs). Forrest skillfully navigated the bustling streets of Reykjavik and got us on to highway 1, also known as the ring road. We were expecting a highway (since it is considered one of the busiest roads here) and were a bit surprised to discover that it was 1 lane each direction complete with round abouts at most intersections and 90km/hr speed limit. We drove through snow, rain, slush, hail and a little bit of sun. Unfortunatly the clouds were low so we could see the 3 volcano's that we passed or the glaciers, including the one that erupted last year, Eyjafjallajokull (youtube video coming soon). What we did see was an ash covered landscape (see photo below) and evidence of flooding that caused rivers to expand and fill vallies full of sediment.
We also stopped at a waterfall and drove past many Icelandic horse and sheep farms, before stopping for the night in the most southerly town in iceland, Vik (which means bay). We went for a very, very, windy walk along a beautiful black sand beach. Tomorrow we will continue to head east past more volcano's and the largest glacier in Europe (hopefully we will be able to see it through the clouds).
Black sand beach along the town of Vik.
Ash covered landscape of southern Iceland.
The famous Icelandic horse.
Waterfall
We also stopped at a waterfall and drove past many Icelandic horse and sheep farms, before stopping for the night in the most southerly town in iceland, Vik (which means bay). We went for a very, very, windy walk along a beautiful black sand beach. Tomorrow we will continue to head east past more volcano's and the largest glacier in Europe (hopefully we will be able to see it through the clouds).
Black sand beach along the town of Vik.
Ash covered landscape of southern Iceland.
The famous Icelandic horse.
Waterfall Leaving Reykjavik
Hello all-
This mornig we are leaving Reykjavik. Originally we were going to drive to Isafjordur in the Western Fjords, however the roads seem 'unpassable' according to the websites and hostel owners. So we are headed south towards the town of Vik and then Hofn. Our rental car is a tiny Toyota Yaris with excellent studded snow tires. It is illegal to rent a car in Iceland in the winter without having studded snows and full insurance.
Gas will be pretty expensive, about $2.50 USD for 1 litre...or about $10.00/gallon! Now that we are headed south instead or north, the drive will be shorter with better conditions.
In Reykjavik, the weather has been awesome, but very cold. Cruising around a foreign town is a bit different when its 15-20 degrees instead of 85 degrees in South America. The entire island is heated with a surplus of very hot geothermal water. These hotsprings provide all the hot water for the towns drinking supply and all buildings are heated with this hot water. Steam rises from the ground at random areas in the countryside. The hot water from the faucets and sinks smell of sulfer but your nose easily adapts to the smell.
Food is very expensive (almost $40 for two plates of fish and chips) so Meryl and i have adapted to 2 meals per day, our free breakfast at the guesthouse and a big dinner/lunch around 5:00.
More to come...
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Reykjavik
Thursday, March 10, 2011
TEAM SOUTHIE GOES NORTH!
After a slight off-highway detour to the SEA-TAC airport, Meryl and i are finally on our way to Reykjavic Iceland. Alcohol is extremely expensive on the island so we bought a duty-free bottle of gin for those windy seashore G&T's!
My carry on consists of the book "The Vikings" and our Icelandic travel guide so meryl can hear all about my favorite people in history...the Vikings!...She will soon know as much about these sailing and marauding peoples as anyone...because she will not be able to escape that very talkative and annoying person next to her...me!
We will try and post some awesome pictures and soak in the natural hotsprings for all of you with those 9-5's!
F & M
My carry on consists of the book "The Vikings" and our Icelandic travel guide so meryl can hear all about my favorite people in history...the Vikings!...She will soon know as much about these sailing and marauding peoples as anyone...because she will not be able to escape that very talkative and annoying person next to her...me!
We will try and post some awesome pictures and soak in the natural hotsprings for all of you with those 9-5's!
F & M
Thursday, May 27, 2010
I'm home
Sorry for the lack of blog posts over the past 2 weeks... as i neared the end of my trip I lost motivation to "blog". Anyways, Im home now in CO and headed to Montana tomorrow. I will continue to post more stuff, including some videos that i wanted to post before but couldn't due to slow internet.
I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer, I am going on month number 6 of warm sunny days!
I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer, I am going on month number 6 of warm sunny days!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Copacbana y un mal estomago...
When I drove into Bolivia during my jeep tour, I was with a gal from California named Kat. She told me that the big joke for touristas in Bolivia is “if you don’t get sick from the water or the food than you will from the altitude…”
Well I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to get sick from the altitude, and after 4 months I like to think that I have a strong stomach, so I was betting that I would be just fine. Well I returned from Rurrenabaque and spent the night in La Paz, and I woke up the next morning to discover that I was not “just fine”. Unfortunately I had to get on a bus that afternoon to head to Copacabana. I survived the bus ride (Bolivian busses don’t have bathrooms, so long rides can be a bit nerve racking and stressful) only to get much worse the fallowing day. I decided to check myself into a Hotel, instead of a hostel so that I could enjoy the “luxury” of a private bathroom. I basically did nothing other than sleep and feel bad for the next 3 days, oye.
But on my fourth day, after consuming all of the pepto-bismol that Forrest and I brought, I rallied! I felt so good I bought myself a bus ticket to Peru and boat tickets for the fallowing day. I wandered around the town of Copacabana, which is a really nice, touristy town on the Bolivian shores of lake Titicaca. The lake is really beautiful, the shores were lined with fishing boats, tour boats, paddle boats along with the traditional reed boats that islanders have used since the time of the Incas. For my last 2 nights I switched hotels to a place called La Cupula, supposedly one of the nicer hotels in Bolivia. I thought I could splurge for it because one room only cost 18$. It was really nice, it was bar far the nicest bathroom that I have been in, in south America and I had it all to myself (i didnt realize how much i took for granted in the bathroom department until I came to Boliva, hot water and water pressure, not to mention toilet seats, dont really exisit in this country).
On my last full day in Copa I took a tour boat to the Isla del Sol (the island of the sun) which is supposedly the birthplace of Inca sun mythology. The boat ride was beautiful, you could see the Cordillera Real off to one side, and the island on the other. The boat took us to the north end of the Island first, where we were dropped off to explore for a few hours. Normally most people walk from one end to the other, it is a 4 hr walk that is supposedly pretty strenuous (the island is at about 13,000ft) I decided not to do that since I had been sick for the past 3 days. So, I walked on the trail for about an hour, went to the museam, and had a nice conversation with a little girl who lived on the island about her farm animals, before heading back onto the boat. We then went to visit the south end of the island for a bit, where I climbed the legendary “1000 steps” to get to the small village, then I went back down them. The boat ride back was warm, sunny and beautiful. Lake Titicaca is truly amazing. I wish that I could have explored more while I was there, but alas my bowels wouldn’t allow it.
Presently I am back in Peru, for my last reaming in days until the grand adventures of Southie come to an end…
View of Copacabana from La Cupula
Sail boat out on the lake
View of the Cordillera Real over the north end of Isla del Sol
The 1000 steps to the village on the south end of the island
traditional reed boat on Lake Titicaca
Well I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to get sick from the altitude, and after 4 months I like to think that I have a strong stomach, so I was betting that I would be just fine. Well I returned from Rurrenabaque and spent the night in La Paz, and I woke up the next morning to discover that I was not “just fine”. Unfortunately I had to get on a bus that afternoon to head to Copacabana. I survived the bus ride (Bolivian busses don’t have bathrooms, so long rides can be a bit nerve racking and stressful) only to get much worse the fallowing day. I decided to check myself into a Hotel, instead of a hostel so that I could enjoy the “luxury” of a private bathroom. I basically did nothing other than sleep and feel bad for the next 3 days, oye.
But on my fourth day, after consuming all of the pepto-bismol that Forrest and I brought, I rallied! I felt so good I bought myself a bus ticket to Peru and boat tickets for the fallowing day. I wandered around the town of Copacabana, which is a really nice, touristy town on the Bolivian shores of lake Titicaca. The lake is really beautiful, the shores were lined with fishing boats, tour boats, paddle boats along with the traditional reed boats that islanders have used since the time of the Incas. For my last 2 nights I switched hotels to a place called La Cupula, supposedly one of the nicer hotels in Bolivia. I thought I could splurge for it because one room only cost 18$. It was really nice, it was bar far the nicest bathroom that I have been in, in south America and I had it all to myself (i didnt realize how much i took for granted in the bathroom department until I came to Boliva, hot water and water pressure, not to mention toilet seats, dont really exisit in this country).
On my last full day in Copa I took a tour boat to the Isla del Sol (the island of the sun) which is supposedly the birthplace of Inca sun mythology. The boat ride was beautiful, you could see the Cordillera Real off to one side, and the island on the other. The boat took us to the north end of the Island first, where we were dropped off to explore for a few hours. Normally most people walk from one end to the other, it is a 4 hr walk that is supposedly pretty strenuous (the island is at about 13,000ft) I decided not to do that since I had been sick for the past 3 days. So, I walked on the trail for about an hour, went to the museam, and had a nice conversation with a little girl who lived on the island about her farm animals, before heading back onto the boat. We then went to visit the south end of the island for a bit, where I climbed the legendary “1000 steps” to get to the small village, then I went back down them. The boat ride back was warm, sunny and beautiful. Lake Titicaca is truly amazing. I wish that I could have explored more while I was there, but alas my bowels wouldn’t allow it.
Presently I am back in Peru, for my last reaming in days until the grand adventures of Southie come to an end…
View of Copacabana from La Cupula
Sail boat out on the lake
View of the Cordillera Real over the north end of Isla del Sol
The 1000 steps to the village on the south end of the island
traditional reed boat on Lake Titicaca
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Baby monky vs Macaw
Baby monkey Chinina really wants to play with the Macaw... the macaw is only interested in getting inside. It was hysterical to watch their interaction.
Both of the animals were brought to the reserve to be rehabilitated. The Macaw was a house pet, but the owners we convinced to let it be wild. She is in the process of re-growing her cut feathers so that she can fly again. She climbs up everyday to the top of her favorite tree... my last morning I saw 2 other Macaws come to visit her, so it appears that things are looking good. The monkey Chinina is one of many baby monkeys that are sold in the local towns after thir mothers are shot and killed for sport, she is 5 months old. Once she´s is big enough they will put her in another part of the reserve with another spider monkey that they rehabilitated.
Both of the animals were brought to the reserve to be rehabilitated. The Macaw was a house pet, but the owners we convinced to let it be wild. She is in the process of re-growing her cut feathers so that she can fly again. She climbs up everyday to the top of her favorite tree... my last morning I saw 2 other Macaws come to visit her, so it appears that things are looking good. The monkey Chinina is one of many baby monkeys that are sold in the local towns after thir mothers are shot and killed for sport, she is 5 months old. Once she´s is big enough they will put her in another part of the reserve with another spider monkey that they rehabilitated.
La Paz... and Rurrenabaque. Montanas y selva!
LA PAZ
I spent about 5 days in La Paz, before heading to Rurrenabaque to visit a part of the Bolivian Amazon. I loved La Paz, it´s really beautiful, located in a valley with huge peaks surrounding it. The city is built up the sidewalls of the canyon and onto the pampa (flat land) above. I visited several museams including a museam about the history of the Coca leaf, which was really fascinating. My other favoite was a museam of instruments (Forrest would have loved it), they have really nice examples of instrument from Bolivia and all arround the world (behind glass cases), but then they have replicas of them everwhere so that you can play them, it was really fun. I visited the Vally de la Luna outside of La Paz, which is a series of badlands. What was more interesting than the badlands however, was the journey to get there. I went with a gal I met from South Africa. We took public transportation (aka a mini-bus, designed for small people like Bolivians, crammed FULL of people) on the way to get there we drove through the Zona Sur, which is the most affluent part of La Paz, and boy was it fancy! Huge mansions, and lots of hummers... on of the school kids on the mini bus asked me if we have big box cars in the US! ha! I also venture up onto the rim of La Paz to view the famous ¨Colitas Wrestling¨ which was one of the more rediculous things that I have seen. It is Bolivia´s version of WWF, complete with a midget wrestler (not very PC). The crowd which was mostly Bolivians all had signs for their favorite wrestlers. It was an experience.
LA SELVA (the jungle)
I booked a 5 day tour to go to the jougle when I was in La Paz, to go the the Sere reserve which is run by the same woman who sarted the Madidi national park. I flew in the morning to Rurrenabaque (Rurre), after an interesting takeoff in a very small plane (16 pasengers, one seat on each side and an open cockpit) we abruptly landed back in La Paz because the instruments on our plane werent functioning! After about 45 min, we tried again and this time we made it all the way to the tiny dirt runway of Rurre. It was a bit of a shock, getting of the plane into really hot humid air ( i had been in high altitude desert for the past month!). We arrived late so I assumed that I had missed my boat(litteraly)... The tour was supposed to leave by boat at 1030, and my plane got in at 11. I huslted to the tour office, convincing the bus driver to drop me off there first. They waited for me! Our group was 2 other couples, one german/french, one couple from Australia, me and our guide Nilo. We all piled into a large dougout canoe with a motor on the back, and motored down the Rio Beni (a tributary to the Amazon) for about 3 hours, with a floating break to have lunch. It was so beautiful, the land behind Rurre was large moutainous jungle and cloud forest and the area downstream was thick flat jungle. We got out of the boat and began our walk, which was about an hour through the jungle before we reached the cabanas that we would be staying in! They were beautiful, netted cabanas with thatched roofs, and we each had our own. The cabanas were about a 15 min walk (which seems really far when you are walking in the dark in the joungle by yourself) from the main lodge which was about 3 floors and overlooked Lago San Fransisco. The first floor was the kitchen and dining area and the other floors were devoted to lounging... old wooden canoes full of pillows and hammocks galore. I spent my 5 days exploring the joungle both on and off trails, as well as paddling arround the lakes in a wodden canoe. The joungle is really amazing, the noise is incredible, it always loud and always changing. I woke up everymorning to the masive sound of male Howler monkeys climing there teritory, the sound litteraly gives you the shivers, its incredible (youtube it). The seccond thing that really supprised me was how thick it was, vegitation growing everywhere, the Amazon also has a way of super-sizing everything... the ants were the size of my thumb! We saw tons and tons of insects (i have my fair share of mosquito bites depite my 98% deet, i also had an incident with ant crwling up my pants-and biting me) most of them are huge. The spiders were the most noticeably large insect because they are everywhere, we saw 2 types of terantula, the bigger one was about the size of a small plate, and about 2 dozen other types. The mariposas (butterflys) are beautiful, my favorite was the transparent butterfly, the really huge metalic blue ones were nice too. At night the mosquitos came out with a vengance... but they were acompanied by huge luciernagas (fire flys) which would light up the trees. My first night we went out after dinner for a late night canoe camin spotting mission. They were everwhere! All of the camin in the lake were small, less than a meter, but we saw one on the Rio Benni that was 3m long! During my visit I was also lucky enough to spot 4 different types of monkeys, a deer, pecarys, an anaconda, 2 other types of big snakes, tons and tons of different types of birs including a tiger heron )my fav), Serere, pigmy kingfisher, hummingbirds, cormorants, Macaw (all 3 types that they have there), 2 othe types of heron and lots more! The Serere reserve is truely an incredible place, it is one of the last places in the area where you can still find old growth trees that havnt been cut down, they are really big! We saw a ficus tree and the base was about the size of my living room! I was sad to leave the selva but I was happy to be out of the buggs...
So, apparently all of the photos loaded to the side instead of to the center so the captions are a bit funny... sorry.
The Rurre airport... the landing stip was dirt and it dead ended into a rock wall.
Rurrenabaque
Boating up the Rio Beni. It was a three hour motored boat trip and then a one hour walk to get to the ecolodge. It really was the middle of the Jungle.
La Selva
After fishing on Lago San Fransisco
Pirana teeth!
Pirana fishing! My guide, Nilo.
Canoeing on Lago Gringo
Me with Chinina
The Serere, the bird that the refuge is named after.
One of many crazy spiders, this guy is about the size of a coffee cup. HUGE!
A squirel monkey in the trees, one of 4 different kinds of monkeys that I saw.
Spider monkey named Chinina, one of the animals being rehabed at the reserve.
My gorgeous cabana in the Jungle
La Paz at night... from above.
"Cholitas wrestling"... Bolivas version of the WWF. Rediculous.
La Paz
The mountians outside of La Paz.
I spent about 5 days in La Paz, before heading to Rurrenabaque to visit a part of the Bolivian Amazon. I loved La Paz, it´s really beautiful, located in a valley with huge peaks surrounding it. The city is built up the sidewalls of the canyon and onto the pampa (flat land) above. I visited several museams including a museam about the history of the Coca leaf, which was really fascinating. My other favoite was a museam of instruments (Forrest would have loved it), they have really nice examples of instrument from Bolivia and all arround the world (behind glass cases), but then they have replicas of them everwhere so that you can play them, it was really fun. I visited the Vally de la Luna outside of La Paz, which is a series of badlands. What was more interesting than the badlands however, was the journey to get there. I went with a gal I met from South Africa. We took public transportation (aka a mini-bus, designed for small people like Bolivians, crammed FULL of people) on the way to get there we drove through the Zona Sur, which is the most affluent part of La Paz, and boy was it fancy! Huge mansions, and lots of hummers... on of the school kids on the mini bus asked me if we have big box cars in the US! ha! I also venture up onto the rim of La Paz to view the famous ¨Colitas Wrestling¨ which was one of the more rediculous things that I have seen. It is Bolivia´s version of WWF, complete with a midget wrestler (not very PC). The crowd which was mostly Bolivians all had signs for their favorite wrestlers. It was an experience.
LA SELVA (the jungle)
I booked a 5 day tour to go to the jougle when I was in La Paz, to go the the Sere reserve which is run by the same woman who sarted the Madidi national park. I flew in the morning to Rurrenabaque (Rurre), after an interesting takeoff in a very small plane (16 pasengers, one seat on each side and an open cockpit) we abruptly landed back in La Paz because the instruments on our plane werent functioning! After about 45 min, we tried again and this time we made it all the way to the tiny dirt runway of Rurre. It was a bit of a shock, getting of the plane into really hot humid air ( i had been in high altitude desert for the past month!). We arrived late so I assumed that I had missed my boat(litteraly)... The tour was supposed to leave by boat at 1030, and my plane got in at 11. I huslted to the tour office, convincing the bus driver to drop me off there first. They waited for me! Our group was 2 other couples, one german/french, one couple from Australia, me and our guide Nilo. We all piled into a large dougout canoe with a motor on the back, and motored down the Rio Beni (a tributary to the Amazon) for about 3 hours, with a floating break to have lunch. It was so beautiful, the land behind Rurre was large moutainous jungle and cloud forest and the area downstream was thick flat jungle. We got out of the boat and began our walk, which was about an hour through the jungle before we reached the cabanas that we would be staying in! They were beautiful, netted cabanas with thatched roofs, and we each had our own. The cabanas were about a 15 min walk (which seems really far when you are walking in the dark in the joungle by yourself) from the main lodge which was about 3 floors and overlooked Lago San Fransisco. The first floor was the kitchen and dining area and the other floors were devoted to lounging... old wooden canoes full of pillows and hammocks galore. I spent my 5 days exploring the joungle both on and off trails, as well as paddling arround the lakes in a wodden canoe. The joungle is really amazing, the noise is incredible, it always loud and always changing. I woke up everymorning to the masive sound of male Howler monkeys climing there teritory, the sound litteraly gives you the shivers, its incredible (youtube it). The seccond thing that really supprised me was how thick it was, vegitation growing everywhere, the Amazon also has a way of super-sizing everything... the ants were the size of my thumb! We saw tons and tons of insects (i have my fair share of mosquito bites depite my 98% deet, i also had an incident with ant crwling up my pants-and biting me) most of them are huge. The spiders were the most noticeably large insect because they are everywhere, we saw 2 types of terantula, the bigger one was about the size of a small plate, and about 2 dozen other types. The mariposas (butterflys) are beautiful, my favorite was the transparent butterfly, the really huge metalic blue ones were nice too. At night the mosquitos came out with a vengance... but they were acompanied by huge luciernagas (fire flys) which would light up the trees. My first night we went out after dinner for a late night canoe camin spotting mission. They were everwhere! All of the camin in the lake were small, less than a meter, but we saw one on the Rio Benni that was 3m long! During my visit I was also lucky enough to spot 4 different types of monkeys, a deer, pecarys, an anaconda, 2 other types of big snakes, tons and tons of different types of birs including a tiger heron )my fav), Serere, pigmy kingfisher, hummingbirds, cormorants, Macaw (all 3 types that they have there), 2 othe types of heron and lots more! The Serere reserve is truely an incredible place, it is one of the last places in the area where you can still find old growth trees that havnt been cut down, they are really big! We saw a ficus tree and the base was about the size of my living room! I was sad to leave the selva but I was happy to be out of the buggs...
So, apparently all of the photos loaded to the side instead of to the center so the captions are a bit funny... sorry.
The Rurre airport... the landing stip was dirt and it dead ended into a rock wall.
Rurrenabaque
Boating up the Rio Beni. It was a three hour motored boat trip and then a one hour walk to get to the ecolodge. It really was the middle of the Jungle.
La Selva
After fishing on Lago San Fransisco
Pirana teeth!
Pirana fishing! My guide, Nilo.
Canoeing on Lago Gringo
Me with Chinina
The Serere, the bird that the refuge is named after.
One of many crazy spiders, this guy is about the size of a coffee cup. HUGE!
A squirel monkey in the trees, one of 4 different kinds of monkeys that I saw.
Spider monkey named Chinina, one of the animals being rehabed at the reserve.
My gorgeous cabana in the Jungle
La Paz at night... from above.
"Cholitas wrestling"... Bolivas version of the WWF. Rediculous.
La Paz
The mountians outside of La Paz.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
BOLIVIAAAAAA!!!
So at the moment I am in La Paz... I have been in Bolivia for about 13 days now (officially only for 7 because it took 5 days to get my visa). It has been a crazy ride so far, I apologize for the infrequent blog posts but the internet here is a bit more difficult than the other places that I have been, and it's really slow.
The photos below are a mishmash from my trip across the salt falts of Uyuni, which was amazing and slightly terrifying (lesson learned use the best tour company in bolivia regardless of cost because the not so good companies are really bad). The salt flat itself is the largest in the world and it is truely mind boggling. We also saw geysers, and hotsprings, along with bizzarely colored lakes... laguna colorada was incredible, and lots of amazing rock formations. After my tour I headed to Potosi the highest city in the WORLD! Yep its at about 4,100m (which is taller then most of the peaks in the US). There i experienced one of the most intense couple hours of my life... The town functions beacuse of mining, presently most people work as part of a mining cooperative. They mine in tunnels where ever they want and when ever they want, and then sell the ore that they collect to the cooperative. I spent about 3 hours in the dusty asbetos filled mine shafts, I went about 2km into them and we decended over 150m down to the fourth level of tunnels. At points we were crawling on our hands and knees and on the deeper levels the temperature was over 100 degrees. We saw and spoke with a twelve year old and a fourteen year old miner... both of them began working when they were 10! They worked about 10 hrs per day and 6 days per week. On a good day they would make arround 25 bolivianos, which is leass than 4 dollars! The mine was one of the most intense and humbling things that I have ever seen... I thought I had a hard job working in mines... nope. The worst part is that there is so much asbestos and silica minerals within the mine that the average life expectancy of the mines once they enter is 12 to 20 years, before they usually die of silicosis or lung cancer... The coopertive allows people to tour the mines so that people can gain a better understaing of what happens there, it is truely eye opening.
On a lighter note...I am heading into the joungle tomorrow. After I promise to spruce up the blog posts, and I will probably expand on this one. I hope all is well at home.
Miss you all! Sorry for the crappy post, but I didnt want to leave everyone hanging.
Altipano desert
Viscacha... aka half rabbit half squirrel, enjoying lunch
Laguna Colorada
Laguna Colorada
Me holding dynamite.. yes the fuse is lit. Sorry its sideways
The mine shaft that we entered. We went 2km into the moutain and decended about 100m
Decending into the mine
Masive asbetos crystal growing from the top of one the mine shafts...
Croutching in one of the mining tunnels
Before entering the Mine outside of Potosi
The train cenmetary of Uyuni
Driving acrross the salt flats
The photos below are a mishmash from my trip across the salt falts of Uyuni, which was amazing and slightly terrifying (lesson learned use the best tour company in bolivia regardless of cost because the not so good companies are really bad). The salt flat itself is the largest in the world and it is truely mind boggling. We also saw geysers, and hotsprings, along with bizzarely colored lakes... laguna colorada was incredible, and lots of amazing rock formations. After my tour I headed to Potosi the highest city in the WORLD! Yep its at about 4,100m (which is taller then most of the peaks in the US). There i experienced one of the most intense couple hours of my life... The town functions beacuse of mining, presently most people work as part of a mining cooperative. They mine in tunnels where ever they want and when ever they want, and then sell the ore that they collect to the cooperative. I spent about 3 hours in the dusty asbetos filled mine shafts, I went about 2km into them and we decended over 150m down to the fourth level of tunnels. At points we were crawling on our hands and knees and on the deeper levels the temperature was over 100 degrees. We saw and spoke with a twelve year old and a fourteen year old miner... both of them began working when they were 10! They worked about 10 hrs per day and 6 days per week. On a good day they would make arround 25 bolivianos, which is leass than 4 dollars! The mine was one of the most intense and humbling things that I have ever seen... I thought I had a hard job working in mines... nope. The worst part is that there is so much asbestos and silica minerals within the mine that the average life expectancy of the mines once they enter is 12 to 20 years, before they usually die of silicosis or lung cancer... The coopertive allows people to tour the mines so that people can gain a better understaing of what happens there, it is truely eye opening.
On a lighter note...I am heading into the joungle tomorrow. After I promise to spruce up the blog posts, and I will probably expand on this one. I hope all is well at home.
Miss you all! Sorry for the crappy post, but I didnt want to leave everyone hanging.
Altipano desert
Viscacha... aka half rabbit half squirrel, enjoying lunch
Laguna Colorada
Laguna Colorada
Me holding dynamite.. yes the fuse is lit. Sorry its sideways
The mine shaft that we entered. We went 2km into the moutain and decended about 100m
Decending into the mine
Masive asbetos crystal growing from the top of one the mine shafts...
Croutching in one of the mining tunnels
Before entering the Mine outside of Potosi
The train cenmetary of Uyuni
Driving acrross the salt flats
Monday, April 19, 2010
San Pedro de Atacama
I spent 4 days relaxing in the tourist mecca of San Pedro de Atacama, by far the most touristy location that I have been to. It is literally an oasis in the middle of the Atacama desert. When we drove up to it, it was the first green area that I had seen in quite some time. The town itself consists of dusty streets, lined with hostels, fancy restaurants, bars and a ton of tour agencies. I spent the first day sitting in a hammock drinking fruit juice and eating empanadas. That evening I ran into a girl who Forrest and I met in Puerto Natales. Kat worked at the hostel that we stayed in while we where there. That evening we headed out to watch the sunset over the Vally de la Luna (valley of the moon), which was beautiful. The valley is quite beautiful and reminded me a lot of the desert in southern Utah, but it is even more amazing because the valley is surrounded by volcanoes! The next day Kat and I went on a Tour to Laguna Cejar. A salty spring in the middle of the Salar (salt flat) of Atacama. The spring is over 150ft deep, with water that is 4 times saltier than the Mediterranean Sea. We all got in, but you can really swim… you just float, it was a really bizarre sensation, because you couldn’t put your legs down the salt would float them back up and you would flop over in the water. Afterwards we went to the Ojos del Salar (eyes of the salt flat) which were 2 agua dulce (fresh water or literally “sweet water”) springs in the middle of the desert, aerial photos make them look like eyes. Afterwards we drove further on the salar to a nice spot where we drank Pisco Sours and watched the sun set. The following day we got up at 4am!!!! To go and visit the geysers of the Tatio Volcano. It was a 2 hr drive on bumpy dirt roads. When we got out of our massive tourist bus thing (check out the photo). We were at an elevation over 14,000ft and it was cold. The geysers were cool, but not much compared to Yellowstone. There were also hot spring that some people went into, and then we had a nice pancake breakfast cooked on the stove that folded out of the side of our vehicle. On the way back to town we stopped by a small village, where I got to bottle feed an 18day old llama (yes I caved and paid to do it… it was sooo cute and soft). We also stopped to check out 400-700 year old cactus which were huge (4-7m tall, they grow 1cm per year). I spent the rest of my afternoon being sleepy. The fallowing day Kat and I boarded a bus to head to Bolivia where we would begin a 3 day jeep tour through the high Andes and Salars to Uyuni.
Sunset in Vally de la Luna
Floating in salty Laguna Cejar
Salty oasis in the desert.
Kat running along the edge of the Ojos.
Sunset
Perspective shot of me and Kat on the Atacama salt flat.
Geysers del Tatio
Pepita, my cute baby llama friend.
Our beefey transportation vheicle.... complete with fold out grill.
Sunset in Vally de la Luna
Floating in salty Laguna Cejar
Salty oasis in the desert.
Kat running along the edge of the Ojos.
Sunset
Perspective shot of me and Kat on the Atacama salt flat.
Geysers del Tatio
Pepita, my cute baby llama friend.
Our beefey transportation vheicle.... complete with fold out grill.
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